October 2012 Archive

It is with deep sorrow that we must announce that Corwin Hardham, Co-Founder and CEO/CTO of Makani Power, and Advisor to the Kiteboat Project, among other companies, died unexpectedly but peacefully on October 23rd, 2012. He was 38 years old.

Corwin’s clear vision and deep commitment to transformative innovation in clean energy inspired us all. A brilliant engineer and skillful leader, as well as an avid kitesurfer, dancer, and community builder, he showed boundless energy and generosity in all aspects of his life.

Our hearts go out to his family, his close companion Gia Schneider, and his many friends.

We headed out for another test today, but the wind came and went in gusts. After the kite fell out of the sky during a lull, the crew discovered that the kite had also already been deflating due to a faulty connection between the leading edge bladder and a strut bladder.

As polyurethane ages, it shrinks, and that meant that the bladders in this older kite had shrunk in storage. An octopus valve connecting the strut to the bladder had failed as the polyurethane fittings pulled it apart, causing a leak. Don fixed this as the other guys untangled the line. By the time of relaunch, there was still no wind, so we headed back to the dock. Tomorrow we’ll […more]

We got a bit of a late start getting out on the water, launching as the sun was setting, which made for some beautiful photos. It was a short test, but it went smoothly. We brought out the 50 sqm kite again. Before launching the big kite, we briefly launched a blue Dacron lifting kite from the Protector. We had hoped to film K2 and the big kite using the rokkaku, but it turned out to be a flawed model and we could not keep it in the air consistently. Allen Smith joined us on this test. He contributed a stabilized GoPro mount, which we mounted on the stern pole, but it proved to be less effective than the fixed […more]

We took the boat out for another evening test today. We got the boat foiling nicely with four guys and the 40 sqm kite in low but steady wind. We also used a new line camera mount, the first time we’ve used a line camera in a while. Allen Smith joined us on this test.

Great test today—the launching mast and all of the new foils worked well, and we were were able to consistently foil in low wind, the most we have ever foiled in so little wind. It was a beautiful evening as well, with very little chop and lots to see from Fleet Week and the AC World Series races.

We tested the new motors and motor mounts today, a beautiful and warm afternoon. We used two kinds of propellers, standard and high speed. We started the test with the standard props, then switched to the high speed ones, and then switched back again. We used the articulating motor mounts to try the motors at different heights relative to the boat hulls and the water level. We also added two-by-fours to the mounts to act as temporary preventers to keep the motors from rising too high. Overall, the motors looked very cool, and the low-speed maneuvering was excellent. We were able to motor the boat around the various other boats at the dock and to back it up with equal ease. However, we were […more]

Greg and Joe built two articulating transom mounts out of carbon fiber, and today they began fitting them both on K2. They built the mounts to hold two Torqeedo motors that each have 378 lbs of static thrust, which should be enough to get K2 up on the foils. The mounts articulate in order to keep the motors high when the boat hulls are in the water and to lower them as the boat foils higher and higher. The motor shafts themselves are shorter than the foiling boat. Mount adjustment is by ropes on a pulley system located inside the mounts. We also purchased high speed props for the motors. If the motors turn out to be capable of high […more]